Royals Rumblings - News for April 20, 2016

Royals Rumblings - News for April 20, 2016

Ned Yost thinks other teams are copying the Royals in bullpen strategy.

"You do see teams doing it more," Yost said Sunday before the Royals closed out their three-game series in Oakland. "The teams that are doing it feel good about it because there's something real special about getting through the fifth inning and knowing that you're probably going to win that game if you're tied, one run down or even ahead by one run. "It just shortens the game so much and makes it nice, but it's hard to do, too. It's hard to get a group of really quality guys down there."

Clark Fosler at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City writes about the alarming strikeout rate of Alex Gordon.

This stretch is not, in fact, the worst strikeout run of Alex’s post-2010 career. Before you breathe that big sigh of relief, it should be noted that said worst stretch was just last September. From the 15th through the 30th, Gordon struck out 20 times over a 12 game span covering 53 plate appearances. There is a whole bunch of cool things that happened to Alex and the Royals between September 30th, 2015 and the start of the 2016 season, but you have the two worst twelve game strikeout spans of Gordon’s last five plus seasons perilously close together.

John Viril at Kings of Kauffman thinks its time to move Chris Young to the bullpen.

Chris Young is still an important part of the team. I haven’t lost faith in his ability to deceive hitters with his "ghost" fastball that they can’t pick up, and his tendency to induce weak fly balls. I still believe that KC Royals general manager Dayton Moore made a good decision by re-signing him this winter to a two-year, $11.25 million contract. But, he’s simply not running good right now.

Sam Mellinger is not ready to pull the plug, however.

He’s fighting his command a bit, and by the nature of his raw stuff, Young is always a guy who pitches on the edge. He’s different enough, and smart enough, and gutsy enough, and deceptive enough to get away with it most times. But when it goes wrong, it tends to go very wrong.

Now, I don’t think we should make too much of this. He gave up 10 runs over two starts last year, and was bombed by the Red Sox in June. The context was much different then, because expectations were lower, and his ERA was under 1.00 on Memorial Day.

He’s the kind of worker and competitor that you trust. I’m not going to pretend to know exactly what the root problem has been these last two starts, but I do think Young has earned the right to work out of it.

Keith Law was in town to see two top draft prospects face off - Aquinas' Riley Pint and Shawnee Mission East's Joey Wentz.

Pint was 96-99 in the first. Gave up a walk and a single. Touched 100 once on a few guns.

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) April 19, 2016

Shawnee Mission East LHP followed up with a no-hitter in front of all the scouts who left Pint's start to see him

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) April 20, 2016

Orioles fans are leading an effort to overcome the vote for Kauffman Stadium for best stadium.

Salvy meets up with a cancer patient during batting practice.

How do you feel about Dayton Moore? MLB Daily Dish wants to know!

Joe Posnanski says teams are striking out more than ever, and that's a good thing.

Noah Syndergaard throws so hard he made an imprint on his catcher.

How effective are defensive shifts?

A Giants fan is ejected for touching a fair ball.

Doubts are raised as to whether racial slurs were really directed at Jason Heyward from Cardinals fans.

The DirecTV 4k MLB debut did not go as planned.

The Chiefs lose their appeal on tampering charges and will forfeit a third-round pick.

MMA fighter Conor McGregor decides to "retire young."

Why your brain loves procrastination.

Netflix has surpassed HBO in the amount of content produced.

A St. Joseph's McDonald's will introduce all-you-can-eat fries.

Your song of the day is Martha and the Vandellas with "Dancing in the Streets."